Union says Welsh Government has funded repairs, meals and swimming lessons but failed to address one of the biggest pressures facing schools

SCHOOL leaders have welcomed extra Welsh Government funding for repairs, free school meals and swimming lessons — but warned that pupils with additional learning needs have been overlooked.

The criticism came after the Welsh Government set out its supplementary budget for 2026-27, including £40m for school buildings and repairs, £15m to expand free school meals in secondary schools, and £2m for swimming lessons.

Laura Doel, national secretary of school leaders’ union NAHT Cymru, said the extra capital funding for school buildings was welcome and would “go some way to plugging the gap”.

She also welcomed the expansion of free school meals, saying no child should go hungry because of their parents’ financial circumstances.

But Ms Doel said the “significant omission” was the lack of additional funding for ALN provision.

She said: “It beggars belief that of money that has come to Wales thanks to investment into additional needs in England, not a penny has gone to support pupils with ALN in Wales.

“We have seen local authorities, directors of education and the profession united on the need for significant investment in supporting our most vulnerable learners, but this government has chosen to ignore the pleas for support.

“It calls into question whether education is a key priority for this government.”

ALN pressure

Additional learning needs provision has become one of the major pressures facing schools and councils across Wales, with rising demand for specialist support, assessments, staffing and placements.

School leaders argue that without dedicated funding, already stretched school budgets are being forced to absorb costs which can affect support for both ALN pupils and the wider school community.

The Welsh Government says the supplementary budget is designed to support key priorities, including public services, schools, health and the cost of living.

But NAHT Cymru said the absence of new ALN money was difficult to justify at a time when schools are repeatedly warning that vulnerable learners need more support.

The Herald has asked the Welsh Government how much of the school buildings funding will come to west Wales and why no specific additional allocation has been made for ALN provision.

Opposition says Supplementary Budget fails businesses, farmers and schools

THE WELSH Conservatives have accused Plaid Cymru of setting the wrong priorities in its Supplementary Budget, claiming it fails to address key pressures facing businesses, agriculture, schools and the NHS.

Darren Millar MS, Leader of the Welsh Conservatives, said Plaid could not distance itself from previous Labour budgets, arguing that its support for four of the last five had contributed to long waiting lists, poor ambulance response times and a backlog of repairs across the NHS estate.

Mr Millar said: “Plaid Cymru can’t disown their record. They supported four of the last five Labour budgets, which got the NHS into this mess in the first place, with crumbling hospitals, poor ambulance performance and the longest waiting lists in Britain.

“This budget fails to face up to the challenges Wales faces. Not a penny for businesses to help them cope with the excessive burden of business rates and National Insurance contributions imposed by Labour. Not a penny for farmers, who are facing unnecessary red tape and Labour and Plaid’s ‘unsustainable’ farming scheme.”

He also criticised the handling of additional funding linked to pupils with Additional Learning Needs in England, saying schools in Wales should not be treated as a lower priority.

Mr Millar added: “It’s also disappointing that money intended for pupils with Additional Learning Needs is not being passed on to schools in Wales. Why should they be any less of a priority than their peers in England?

“This budget has the wrong priorities and is taking the same failed sticking plaster approach of the last Labour government. It’s time for Plaid to focus on the priorities of the people of Wales.”

However, supporters of the Supplementary Budget are likely to argue that it is designed to stabilise public services during a period of significant financial pressure, with the NHS, councils and schools all facing rising costs and demand.

Welsh ministers also have discretion over how UK Government consequentials are allocated, meaning money arising from spending decisions in England is not always ring-fenced for the same purpose in Wales.

Meanwhile, Huw Thomas, Welsh Labour’s Finance Spokesperson said: “What stands out in this supplementary budget is not what’s included, but what’s missing. Despite every Welsh council, teaching unions, and schools calling for it, Plaid Cymru have failed to commit any of the over £300 million that’s available for children with additional learning needs.

“We are clear that Plaid’s uncosted promises should not be paid for by Welsh pupils and teachers.”

A Plaid Cymru spokesperson said: “This Supplementary Budget is about putting Wales’ priorities first and making every pound work harder.

“It provides targeted investment in key public services, including action to reduce NHS waiting times, support childcare, extend free school meals, invest in schools and strengthen social housing.

“After years of financial pressure, our focus is on practical measures that help families, protect frontline services and begin the work of delivering a fairer, more ambitious Wales.”

CHURCH education in Pembrokeshire, the birthplace of Wales’s Patron Saint, is under threat from a series of actions by the council which could amount to religious discrimination, the Church in Wales has said.

The Church in Wales has issued a formal notice that it will take legal action against Pembrokeshire County Council if it presses ahead with plans to remove church status from Cilgerran Voluntary Controlled Primary School.

Back in May, the council voted to remove the Voluntary Controlled status of the Welsh-speaking rural school and to establish it as a 3-11 community school despite 97 per cent of the responses to a consultation about its potential discontinuation opposing it.

That consultation followed a review which “considered the extent of surplus school places in the area, set against a significant decline in the pupil population,” the council has previously said.

Hundreds opposed the proposed changes, with a petition on the council’s own website gaining 391 signatures.

During the consultation, 203 responses were received; 97 per cent (197 responses) against the proposal, with just 1.5 per cent (three) in favour.

Earlier this year, councillors heard from vice-chair of the school governors Gary Fieldhouse who said the loss of the Church in Wales status would be “a profound mistake,” the school’s association with the church “not symbolic but fundamental”.

Reverend John Cecil had told councillors the proposals were “fundamentally flawed,” with the school’s land legally in trust as a Church of Wales school, and change “essentially creating a new school with no premises to occupy”.

A letter has now been sent to council officers on behalf of the Diocese of St Davids and the Church in Wales saying that, if the council persists with this course, the Church will take legal action on the grounds of claims of “public misrepresentation and unqualified legal assertions made by Pembrokeshire County Council officers,” and “discrimination against faith schooling”.

The letter also says that, if the council removes VC status from the school, the Church will not make the site available for a successor school, which it says will render “the case on which the proposed removal of VC status is based untenable”.

The legal warning follows Pembrokeshire County Council’s decision earlier this month to close Manorbier Church in Wales Voluntary Controlled School, which was damaged by a fire in 2022.

The church says that despite repeated assurances from Cabinet Members and senior officers that it would be rebuilt, it has been allowed to sit empty while the number of children, forced for years to learn in temporary accommodation, has declined.

A spokesperson for the Church in Wales said: “Pembrokeshire County Council’s behaviour in the case of Manorbier VC School has been utterly unconscionable.

“The council has presided over a catalogue of delay, incompetence and broken promises resulting in the literal destruction of a thriving school which has served its community for more than 150 years.

“Taken together with the gratuitous attack on the church status of Ysgol Cilgerran, this amounts to a targeted assault on the inclusive Christian education which Church in Wales schools have provided to their communities for generations.

“That the council should be pursuing this potentially discriminatory action against Church schools in the county which is the cradle of Christianity in Wales, and which takes pride in being the birthplace and shrine of our nation’s Patron Saint, is a bitter irony.

“We are not prepared to allow it to happen, and we look to the county’s elected representatives to halt this destructive course of action.”

Pembrokeshire County Council has been contacted for a response.